Three paths for an interim coach for Florida Football if/when Billy Napier is fired

The sun rose on Tuesday, and Billy Napier is still the head coach of Florida Football. Just how many more sunrises Napier will be enjoying in Gainesville feels like a formality though, as rumblings of whether or not buyout money has been collected has been running rampart.

If Napier gets fired, Florida's first order of business will be to tab an interim coach for the remainder of the 2024 season before hiring the next head coach for 2025.

It's with that in mind that we explore three pathways the Gators could go down to tab an interim coach for 2024.

Promote An Assistant

The most straightforward option for Florida is to promote one of the assistants already on staff. In 2021, when Dan Mullen was fired on the eve of the FSU game, running back/special teams coach Greg Knox was promoted to finish out the season. In 2017, when Jim McElwain was fired mid-season, defensive coordinator Randy Shannon finished the year.

Under that precedent, the most obvious choice to promote would be Ron Roberts. Outside of Russ Callaway probably becoming the offensive coordinator, not much else feels like it would change with the day-to-day operations since Roberts is from the same tree of coaching as Napier.

Promote From Support Staff

Last week, we noted that Florida has 66 people listed on its website as "Football Support Staff." The bulk of these are not people who get the nod, but there is one very notable name Gator admin could convince themselves into naming the interim coach if they want to keep the rest of the staff the same.

Dan Enos is listed on Florida's website as "Special Assistant to the Head Coach/Advanced Scouting." His lone head coaching stint was from 2010 to 2014, when he was the head coach for Central Michigan and compiled a record of 26-36.

From there, Enos has hopped around as an offensive coordinator and hasn't stayed anywhere longer than two years since 2018. He was last at Arkansas as offensive coordinator and was fired after half a season.

Like Roberts, most Gator fans would not be enthused with a move like this.

Outside The Box

Back in 2022 when Auburn fired Bryan Harsin midway through the season, they tabbed running backs coach and former Auburn great Cadillac Williams to finish out the year. In 2012 and 2014, Wisconsin had Barry Alvarez come back to coach the Rose Bowl.

The idea is that you want someone who is bought into the logo and the program and has enough pride to fight all the way to the finish line.

In this vein, Brandon Spikes has been hanging around in Gainesville as a student assistant while finishing up his degree at Florida. No one would question his passion for the program.

Steve Spurrier has also been floated as a potential interim coach. At 79 years old though, there is no telling whether it would work out even if he wanted to come out of retirement for two months.

Other names would fit this category too, but this feels like a pathway fans would want to see explored the most simply because fans want to see literally anyone different who isn't connected to the Napier regime.